Music Video Analysis Questions- Unfinished Sympathy & Titanium

 

• What are the songs about?

-I think that Unfinished Sympathy is a love song about if you get hurt by someone you're in love with you should still be strong and not let anyone knock you down because you are better than that and you should pick yourself up and not let it effect you. This makes it appeal to the target audience more as it is aimed at a young audience (around 18-29) and they would be able to relate to it as most people that age would be going through something like this or have already been through it. Love is a mainstream song topic therefore it would make it appeal to a wider audience.

- I think Titanium is about a similar kind of thing. I think it is about strength and still be strong even when the world is its worse at you. As the song is called 'Titanium' meaning to be strong hearted and strong willed. This makes it appeal to their target audience which is around 13-29 so they would listen to the meaning of the song so it could help them. 

• What messages do they convey to the audience?

-I think the messages conveyed to the audience for both songs is that no matter what life throws at you, you shouldn't be knocked down and you should still stay strong and belie it yourself and it will eventually get better.

• How have the artists been represented in their respective videos?Why?

-The artists for Unfinished Sympathy have been represented as 'normal' people as none of them stand out from all the other people in the streets. This makes them look like anti-stars because stars in music videos stand out from other people but they don't. The band members are hardly even in the video and when they are they are just in the background. I think they have been represented like this to show that just because they are famous it doesn't mean they aren't like normal people and they are still down to earth and like everyone else. Shara Nelson is the main feature in the video and she is represented as a strong, confident and powerful women. This could be so people look up to her and take a leaf out of her book and act like this too showing not to let anyone knock you down.

-The artists for Titanium are not in their music video for this song which could be because their target audience is young people and David Guetta is 49 and Sia is 41 so they are a lot older than their target audience therefore the song and video would appeal to their audience more if they had a young person in their video. Ryan Lee is the main character in the music video and he is young so it appeals to more people.

• Do the videos represent the artists successfully?

-For Unfinished Sympathy, I think the video do represent the artists successfully as they aren't portrayed in a bad way so it doesn't damage their reputation. As I have said previously they are presented as 'normal' people and I think this makes them seem more down to earth as they don't stand out from anyone else meaning they aren't better than anyone else. I think  the video also represents Shara Nelson successfully as people could aspire to be like her.

-For Titanium, I think the video represents the artists half successfully and half not, because I think them not being in the video might give them more viewers and make the video more popular but then that makes me think that all they care about is how popular the video and the song is and how successful they are going to be because of it.

• What styles of filmmaking have been used? Why utilise such styles?

-The filmmaking used for Unfinished Sympathy is one long tracking shot which makes it a groundbreaking video. The video being filmed in just one take sort of shows that they are skilled it is quite hard to do this and it makes the band unique as it was rare to see videos like this of the time this video came out. I think it utilised this style to create a sense of immediacy and it makes the audience feel like they are in the street in the video following Shara Nelson as they is no cuts between different camera angles like in other music videos.

-The filmmaking used for Titanium is almost like a short film as it riffs on 'Super 8' and tells a story about a boy that gets hurt because he has supernatural powers and uses lots of cuts from different camera angles and used lots of different shots like for example a long shot. I think it utilised this style because films aren't real and neither a supernatural powers and you'd only see supernatural powers in a film so they had to make it look like a short film.  

• How does the David Guetta video reference the Steven Spielberg films?

-The David Guetta video references the Steven Spielberg films as the film is they are both about supernatural things and they both have a suburban setting which makes them very similar. 

• How and why has 'the street' been used in the Massive Attack Video?

-'The street' has been used in the music video for Unfinished Sympathy as it tells the audience where the band came from which was the streets of Bristol. It also tells the audience what type of music they produce which is hip-hop, trip-hop, dance, electronic and post-punk.

• Do the visuals work well with the musical and lyrical content?

-For Unfinished Sympathy, I think that visuals of the video don't really link to the lyrics of the song as it is about love and the video is set in the streets of LA which isn't really romantic. However, the way Shara Nelson is presented in the visuals of the video links to the meaning and message of the song and lyrics. 

-For Titanium, I think is a strange video and I don't really understand how it links with the song lyrics. I like the visuals of the video and I like the song lyrics on their own but they don't go together well, in my opinion.

• What 'pleasure' does the audience get from each video? Consider fans of the artists in question.

-The audience and fans for Massive Attack might get pleasure from seeing different lifestyles and what different places and countries are like if they haven't been to them or seen them before as the video for Unfinished Sympathy is in LA and most the the fans of the band are British as they are a British band. The audience and fans might also get pleasure from seeing the band members like 'normal' people as artists and famous people usually stand out from the other people in music videos but because they don't it might make the audience and fans like them more because they see them as the same as them.

-The audience and fans for David Guetta and Sia might get pleasure from the video as they could also be fans of the Steven Spielberg films so they might really enjoy watching the music video for Titanium. The audience and fans that aren't fans of the Steven Spielberg films may still like the video because it could be something new to them so they could like it too.